At the annual meeting of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO), Sophie Kurk from the University Medical Centre Utrecht (UMCU) presented the latest findings of a retrospective study of the CAIRO31 trial during a plenary poster discussion session.
Sophie Kurk: “At ASCO 2017 we showed the detrimental effect of muscle loss on survival. As a potential risk factor for reduced survival we explored whether muscle loss was associated with dose limiting toxicities during palliative systemic treatment. At ESMO 2017 we reported that during palliative systemic treatment sarcopenia and/or muscle loss is associated with an increased risk of experiencing dose limiting toxicities, which may contribute to the observed worse survival in this group of patients.”
This study is part of a larger project within the Utrecht Centre on Food & Health. UMCU, Utrecht University and Danone Research & Innovation are partners in this collaboration.
The presentation shared clinical data on muscle loss in relation to time to disease progression, survival and dose limiting toxicities of metastatic colorectal cancer patients receiving palliative systemic treatment. Metastatic colorectal cancer patients, who lose skeletal muscle index (SMI) during maintenance treatment (CAP-B), show a worse prognosis as indicated by shorter overall survival and an increased risk of dose limiting toxicities during treatment. Based on these latest findings, this study highlights the clinical importance of muscle loss in mCRC patients and suggests that muscle preservation may be a future therapeutic goal, e.g. by using medical nutrition.
About ESMO
The annual meeting of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) was held 8 to 12 September in Madrid. The ESMO 2017 Congress, in partnership with the European Association for Cancer Research (EACR), brings cancer researchers and clinicians together to enable collaboration and the exchange of ideas, from the laboratory to the bedside and back.